Natural Camouflage¹

Abstract

THE fine volume under notice is a new edition of the beautifully illustrated work which, originally appearing in 1909, first brought in a connected form before the public the many classical principles of concealing-coloration established by the genius of the American artist-naturalist Abbott H. Thayer. Important discoveries such as these, especially when the enthusiasm of their originator could recognise well-nigh no limits to their application, were bound to bring sharp differences of opinion. In America we have seen the rise of two rival camps, one, headed by the late Theodore Roosevelt, opposing the whole of Thayer's conclusions, the other accepting the whole and even interpreting the advertisement of Warning Colours and their simulation in Mimicry as examples of the working, in one form or another, of concealing-coloration.